Figure 1.

Self-assembling of peptide amphiphiles and RADA16-I. Peptide amphiphiles, hydrophobic moiety including palmitic acid, Fmoc and 2-(naphthalen-2-yl) acetic acid can react with the N terminal of peptide to form the peptide amphiphiles. Peptide amphiphiles self-assemble into nanofibers and hydrogels through hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonding. Repeats of alternating ionic hydrophilic and hydrophobic amino acids are distributed in RADA-I. RADA-I self-assembles to form β-sheets and nanofibers, with the hydrophobic alanine sandwiched inside and hydrophilic residues on the outside. R, arginine; A, alanine; D, aspartate; R1, R2, R3, the side chains of arginine, alanine and aspartate.